Acorn Bank and Gypsum

To finish off the Gypsum story – for the time being anyway, I am looking at the important part the estate of Acorn Bank played in it.


As you drive down the half-mile long drive and see the huge area of parkland surrounding the lovely house and gardens, it is hard to see what link there could be with mining.

The first owners of the estate were the Knights Templar in 1228, from whom the nearby village of Temple Sowerby got its name. After the suppression of the Templars, the manor passed to the Knights of the Hospital of St John, who held it from 1323 until the Dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIIl.

In 1543 Acorn Bank was acquired by Thomas Dalston, a local landowner from Dalston, just outside Carlisle, and it remained in the family right up until the 1930s. It was during this time that extra wings were added to the house and the walled garden was created.

Eventually the house passed through the female line to the Boazman family from Newton Aycliffe in County Durham and it was Henry Boazman who, in 1880, whilst walking in the grounds, noticed a surface exposure of white gypsum in the grass. He realised that this was alabaster, a mineral much in demand at the time. So the family started to mine gypsum and continued to do so until the mine closed in 1937. All that is left of the workings today is the Old Engine Shed and a building where explosives were stored.


Acorn Bank was given to the National Trust in 1950. For a long time the house was leased to tenants, including at one time the Sue Ryder Foundation who used it as a nursing home. In 1996 the National Trust took on direct management of the building and it is now usually open to visitors, although there is currently not a lot to see inside. It houses a good tearoom though! 


I took this picture just as the house was closing, (in fact I was cutting it so fine that the gate was kept open for me!), so there were not the usual people milling around and all the posters and stands etc.